It's the start of another school year across the Parkes Shire and that means there's a new influx of kindergarten students and their families who have or are about to enjoy their first official day of school.

The five primary schools in Parkes had their first days of kindergarten on Tuesday for Parkes Christian School and Thursday for the remaining schools.

The shire schools in Peak Hill, Bogan Gate, Trundle and Tullamore fall under the Western Division who start school next week.

In total there are 200 new kindy students across the shire this year - 172 in town and 28 in our shire schools.

Parkes Public School has the biggest enrolments with 65 little ones starting in 2025, followed by Parkes East Public School with 31.

Both Parkes Christian School and Holy Family Primary School have 27 kindies each that started this week and Middleton Public School has 22.

Peak Hill Central School have 11 kindy kids starting next week, Trundle Central School have 10, St Joesph's School in Peak Hill have six and St Patrick's School in Trundle has one.

There are no new kinders this year at Bogan Gate Public School and we're still waiting to hear confirmation of numbers from Tullamore Central School.

Our journalists stopped in at some of the schools in town yesterday morning to capture the students, some with their families, on their first day of kindergarten.

Here are our photos. There are multiple galleries and photos will appear in the print edition of the Parkes Champion Post from next week.